Miner&#39;s gas-burning lamp.



' v v Q z J I 7 THE COLUMBIA PLANQGRAPH 8b., WASHINGTON, D. C.

Patented Mar. 7,1916.

@MTE

FREDERIC E. BALDWIN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

MINER/S GAS-BURNING- LAMP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. '7, 1916.

Application filed February 2, 1912. Serial No. 675,026.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERIO E. BALD- WIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, county of New York, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Miners Gas-Burning Lamps, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

This invention relates to improvements in miners gas burning lamps.

As miners gas burning lamps are now constructed a blast, or the firing of a shot extinguishes the miners lamps within a radius of a considerable distance from the point where the shot is fired. This is due to the fact that the firing of the shot abruptly increases the atmospheric pressure in the mine, and this increased pressure, acting through the opening in the burner, forces the gas back through the burner, the atmospheric pressure being momentarily greater than the pressure under which the gas is being delivered to the burner. Further, in the miners lamps now in general use, the reflector is so attached to the lamp structure that it is liable to be broken by the hard usage the lamp necessarily undergoes in the mine.

One of the objects of the present invention is to produce a gas burning miners lamp constructed in such a way that a sudden increase in atmospheric pressure will not extinguish the lamp.

A further object of the invention is to produce an improved miners gas burning lamp, the reflector of which is so attached to the lamp as to be protected by the lamp structure.

With these and other objects not specifically referred to in view, the invention consists in certain constructions, and in certain parts, improvements and combinations as will be hereinafter fully described and then specifically pointed out.

Referring to the accompanying drawing, the figure illustrates in vertical section a miners gas burning lamp constructed in accordance with the invention.

Lamps constructed in accordance with the invention will include a source of gas supply. In the particular construction illustrated, the source of gas supply comprises a container 1 adapted to hold calcium carbid in granular or comminuted form. When lamps embodying the. invention obtain the gas from calcium carbid, the lamp structure will also include a water tank from which water may be delivered to the carbid container. The construction and arrangement of this water tank may be considerably varied. In the particular construction illus trated, the tank 2 is of general cylindrical form and is provided with a threaded neck 3 engaging a correspondingly threaded neck l on the carbid container, the joint between the two being formed by a gasket 5.

The tank is provided with a water pipe 6 which extends down into the carbid container and there may also be employed a stirrer, cleaner or breaker in the form of a wire 7 extending down through the pipe and for a slight distance into the carbid. The tank is, or may be, provided with a filling orifice closed by a cap 8, as common in such constructions.

The burner for the lamp may be variously constructed and arranged, as may also be the gas conduit by which the gas is delivered from the carbid container to the burner. In lamps embodying the invention in its best form, and as in the construction illustrated, one end or wall of the tank will be depressed, as indicated at 9, and one end of the gas conduit, indicated at 10, will extend through this depressed wall and into the concavity formed thereby. As illustrated, the pipe 10 has connected to it a second pipe 11, this pipe extending through the lower wall of the tank and being in open communication with the gas containing space in the upper part of the container.

In lamps embodying the invention in its best form means will be provided for preventing the extinguishing of the lamp by an abrupt increase of atmospheric pressure in the mine, such as that due to the firing of shots, by raising the pressure in the gas containing space back of the burner by an amount substantially equal to the increase in atmospheric pressure in the mine. The means employed for thus raising the pressure of the gas may be widely varied. In constructions embodying the invention in its best form, the means employed will include a flexible fluid containing sac constructed to be partially collapsed or deformed by change in atmospheric pressure. When such a sac is employed it should be so arranged and connected with the source of gas supply that the collapsing or deformation will operate to increase the gas pressure in the gas space behind the burner and sufficiently close to the burner sotha-t the gas flow will not be interrupted in such a way as to cause the flame to be extinguished by the abrupt increase in pressure referred to. In the particular construction illustrated, the reservoir or sac, indicated at 12, is formed of rubber and its interior is in open communication with a pipe 13, this pipe being formed in one piece with and constituting the rearward extension of the pipe 10 hereinbefore referred to. l/Vhen such a sac is employed, it should be, as before indicated, so located as to be exposed to the action of the air, but it is also desirable that it be protected from accidental injury. As shown, this is effected by depressing the wall 14 of the water tank and providing a perforated cover, as 15, which protects the sac.

With the construction described, it will be understood that when a shot is fired in the mine, the atmospheric pressure in the mine within a considerable radius from the shot is abruptly increased, and this increase in pressure tends to deform or collapse the flexible sac. This collapsing or deformation will abruptly increase the pressure within the gas space in the lamp behind the burner and sufiiciently close to the burner so that the air under the increased pressure referred to is prevented from extinguishing the flame. Notwithstanding the tendency of the gas to be forced back through the burner by the increase in atmospheric pressure in the mine, the gas will be continued to be supplied to the burner, and the gas will continue to burn because the pressures on each side of the burner are substantially equalized. It will be understood, of course, that the sac should be located in such proximity to the burner as to cause the pressures to be equalized substantially at the burner or sufliciently close thereto, so that the abrupt increase of atmospherlc pressure in the mine cannot extinguish the flame.

In constructions which embody the invencopies of this patent may be obtained for tion in its best form, the concave reflector usually employed, and indicated at 16, will have its convex portion resting in the concavity formed by depressing the wall 9. This protects the reflector from rough usage, and prevents it from being bent or broken. In such constructions, furthermore, the reflector should be provided with a rearwardly extending flange which is arranged to engage with the tank, so that the reflector will be not only protected by but in a. measure supported by the tank. In the construction shown, such a flange is indicated, the flange engaging the tank. This construction has the further advantage of providing an air space back of the reflector, so that the heat generated by the burner will be radiated from the reflector, instead of being absorbed by the lamp structure or the water in the tank.

Changes and variations may be made in the construction by which the invention claimed is carried into effect. The invention is not, therefore, to be confined to the particular construction herein described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

I claim In a miners lamp, the combination with a carbid container and a water container, of a gas burner and gas tube leading thereto, and a flexible container for gas, connected with said gas tube at a point near the burner by a comparatively large tube and exposed to external pressure, the length and size of said connecting tube being such that in case of an explosion in the mine the pressure on the flame side of the burner is instantly counterbalanced by a like pressure on the other side of the burner, and a suitable protecting cap for said flexible container substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FREDERIO E. BALDWIN. WVitnesses:

A. WHITE, P. N. TILDEN.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

